Like Scot, my wife and I were also born and raised in WI (farmers). We left right after high school when I joined the Navy, and started our own little adventure in life.
I've lived in virtually every corner and part of this great land. Places such as FL, SC, VA, MA, CA, HI, RI, MI, with short stints in TX and OK, etc. etc. Quite a few years were spent in Virginia Beach, and a good number in San Diego.
Without a doubt the BEST weather experience was in San Diego, with Pearl Harbor a close second. But the cost of living and self centered personalities defiinately killed the experiences there.
After retiring from the Navy and spending 12 years in San Diego, layoffs forced us to look elsewhere, and since the grass is always greener on the other side we decided to give our old home a try and moved back to our home town in WI.
WHAT A HUGE MISTAGE THAT WAS!!!! We had obviously forgotten how miserable the winters can be, and got taxed nearly into the poor house!
We then started our search for something better.
Long story short, after a few trips to FL and TX, we ended up here in East TN and have never regretted even a second of it.
Sure we have definite four seasons which is great, but for the most part our winters are a lot like today. Cold by some standards with our high today heading into the mid 40's. Average highs being low 50's, Average lows in the 30's. But seldom see snow, and the winter storm the previous poster mentioned coming tomorrow is quite a bit out of the ordinary, and we may get a couple inches of the white stuff, but like any of our winter snows, it'll be gone in 24-48 hours. NC is getting the worst of this one coming.
I consider our winters to be very mild. Our summers are not as bad as most other places I've lived. I don't think we had more than 10 days this last summer with temps hitting low 90's.
Heck, even our weather here is VERY VERY different (milder winters and milder summers) than even West TN!! Must be our proximity to the mountains.
And add to that the low cost of living, low realstate taxes, non existent state income tax, layed back life style, etc.
If I need the hubub and great restaurants, I just run 12 miles up the road into Konxville.
Geeezzzz, can't believe I rambled on so long. Sunny nice day today, think I'll take my GN out on our nice clean roads, and go harass Scot today.